You could also just try Creating about five or six loops 8 inches in diameter at the bottom of the antenna before the coax connects That will help to remove the feedline from the antenna system and isolate it
Hey Pat! As it turned out, it was a bad coax. I was using several smaller pieces and one was intermittently shorting out. I'll try it again sometime! Cheers.
Hey Dave - thanks for watching! Actually your spot on. I grabbed a bunch of odd cable lengths and connected them with barrel connectors. One of the cables I connected ended up being shorted out, but I didn't find out for a few days when I used it somewhere else and tested the circuit with my RigExpert. That experience really drives home the need to test your equipment after you're all setup! Cheers.
Came across in the RUclips timeline and impressed by the good info and well edited video. Then, notice living in the same Grid square with you. Greetings from Walnut Blvd. 😆
The day before Field Day '21 we set up an AR-2259/GB clone antenna and verified that it worked fine. The next day we were getting high SWR and no signal in/out. After testing the coax/antenna with an analyzer we eventually discovered that the SO-239 barrel was bad. Also coax can seem fine in one instance but present a break in the center conductor when moved around. It may be hard to find a break in the coax, but those RigExpert analyzers can detect coax breaks. The manual shows the method to use. Did you check to see if there was a short in the coax?
Hey John - thanks for stopping by. Good point! I didn't check for shorts, however I've used and continue to use the same cable I was testing on. One thing comes to mind is the loss factor. Looking at a few calculators online I see that a transmitter running 50 watts down RG8X at 145Mhz will have the output power reduced by over 50%. However, I think their might be a little more to that but I've not gone back to isolate it yet. I tried this setup during field day this year and used someone else's radio and coax and ran into the same problem. I keep at it. That's what's fun about the hobby. Cheers!
@@W0KNI Ok sounds good Stephen. Hope you get it figured out. btw we use the same 145.49 frequency on our repeater here in Ft. Bend County, Texas. 73 KD5YOU
You could also just try Creating about five or six loops 8 inches in diameter at the bottom of the antenna before the coax connects That will help to remove the feedline from the antenna system and isolate it
Hey Pat! As it turned out, it was a bad coax. I was using several smaller pieces and one was intermittently shorting out. I'll try it again sometime! Cheers.
I would guess a short at the coax connector that developed after the higher power was applied.
Hey Dave - thanks for watching! Actually your spot on. I grabbed a bunch of odd cable lengths and connected them with barrel connectors. One of the cables I connected ended up being shorted out, but I didn't find out for a few days when I used it somewhere else and tested the circuit with my RigExpert. That experience really drives home the need to test your equipment after you're all setup! Cheers.
Came across in the RUclips timeline and impressed by the good info and well edited video. Then, notice living in the same Grid square with you. Greetings from Walnut Blvd. 😆
Go Oregon Hams! Thanks for watching! Haha - small world it is. Glad you enjoyed the video - hope to hear you on the air!
Great video, Steve. Always appreciate your content. See ya on Field Day!
Cool video. Good production.
The day before Field Day '21 we set up an AR-2259/GB clone antenna and verified that it worked fine. The next day we were getting high SWR and no signal in/out. After testing the coax/antenna with an analyzer we eventually discovered that the SO-239 barrel was bad. Also coax can seem fine in one instance but present a break in the center conductor when moved around. It may be hard to find a break in the coax, but those RigExpert analyzers can detect coax breaks. The manual shows the method to use. Did you check to see if there was a short in the coax?
Hey John - thanks for stopping by. Good point! I didn't check for shorts, however I've used and continue to use the same cable I was testing on. One thing comes to mind is the loss factor. Looking at a few calculators online I see that a transmitter running 50 watts down RG8X at 145Mhz will have the output power reduced by over 50%. However, I think their might be a little more to that but I've not gone back to isolate it yet. I tried this setup during field day this year and used someone else's radio and coax and ran into the same problem. I keep at it. That's what's fun about the hobby. Cheers!
@@W0KNI Ok sounds good Stephen. Hope you get it figured out. btw we use the same 145.49 frequency on our repeater here in Ft. Bend County, Texas. 73
KD5YOU
Please send me PROJECT
Hey there thanks for watching! Can you elaborate a bit more on your request? Cheers.